Labor-Market Quality
of Foreign-Born Workers
2007-2017
Rubén Hernández Murillo
FDIC — May 13, 2022
(Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic
Commentary, May 2020.)
Goals
- The foreign-born are (very) important for
the US economy
- Data from the ACS on labor-market quality between 2007 and
2017
- Various measures of labor-market quality improved
over the period
- Notable increases among Mexican-born workers
- Why?
- Shift in the composition of the foreign-born
- Increase in immigration from Asia
- Precipitous decline in immigration from Mexico (why?)
The foreign-born are very
important
- Most of the foreign-born population are working-age individuals
- The foreign-born represent almost 20% of the US workforce
- The foreign-born population grew 2.5x to
3.3x faster than the US-born
- Overall US population grew 8.2%:
- 2.2% was growth in the overall foreign-born population
- 6.1% was growth in the overall US-born population
- Working-age US population grew 5.7%:
- 2.2% was growth in foreign-born workers
- 3.5% was growth in US-born workers
Measures of labor-market
quality
-
Educational attainment
-
English
proficiency
-
Earnings
potential
Educational attainment
by area of origin
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English proficiency by
area of origin
![]()
Distribution
of the recent foreign-born
by area of origin
![]()
Border enforcement
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Conclusion
- Measures of labor-market quality of foreign-born workers
improved during 2007-2017
- Notable gains seem concentrated among immigrants from
Mexico
- The apparent increase in quality results from
a shift
in the distribution of immigrants:
- Increased immigration from Asia
- A precipitous decline in immigration from Mexico
- Factors behind the decline in immigration from Mexico:
- Increase in border enforcement over past two
decades
- (Decrease in US demand for Mexican workers after 2008/9
recession)